New Red Wings forward David Perron took part in a charity golf tournament in Quebec last Tuesday, and he gave no less than three interviews during the tournament.
He spoke with Le Journal de Quebec’s Frederic Marcoux, he spoke with RDS’s Eric LeBlanc, and he spoke with La Presse’s Simon Olivier Lorange, too. Here’s a rough translation of our third interview from the Gagne-Bergeron Pro-Am:
David Perron wants to help “build the identity” of the Red Wings
It’s nothing against the Detroit Red Wings, his new team. But David Perron was far from thrilled to leave St. Louis. It’s not like his relationship with the Blues has been a long river, quiet for the past 15 years.
In 2013, the team that drafted him 6 years earlier traded him to the Edmonton Oilers. After returning to Missouri in 2016, the Quebecer was left unprotected in the 2017 expansion draft; he thus ended up in Las Vegas. A year later, he returned to the Blues, this time for four full years.
A few weeks ago, Perron received the news he never hoped to receive again: his third stay in St. Louis was over. At 34, he can probably assume that, this time, the divorce will be final. Much to his dismay.
“I spent 11 of my 15 seasons there, my children grew up there. We loved it. It’s difficult,” Perron said last Tuesday, at the sidelines of the Gagne-Bergeron Pro-Am, a charity event presented at the Videotron Center in Quebec City.
With an offensive production equal to 72 points per 82 games over the past 4 seasons, he believes that he “deserved” a new contract that would allow him to not move. It didn’t happen.
Almost a month later, he says he’s ready to “turn the page” and begin a new chapter in his career in Detroit, a city where he’ll settle with a two-year contract in his back pocket. This challenge thrills him, he says. Especially when the Red Wings seem to finally be getting their heads above water.
Over the past six seasons, the Red Wings have hovered between 25th and 31st overall. Some of the team’s most promising prospects, like Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, established themselves as full-time players in the NHL last season, which seems to have convinced GM Steve Yzerman to step on the accelerator this offseason.
In addition to Perron, forwards Andrew Copp and Dominik Kubalik, as well as defensemen Ben Chiarot, Mark Pysyk and Olli Maatta have all been signed as free agents. Goaltender Ville Husso was acquired via a trade.
Yzerman, says Perron, sold him on the idea of a team, “at the end of a reconstruction,” which wants to “play important games” until the very end of the schedule. And no longer be excluded from the playoff picture before the Christmas holidays. With enthusiasm, the Quebecer is already talking about the second year of his contract, when the young workforce will have matured further.
A new role
Although he never wore a letter on his jersey in St. Louis, David Perron knows he was one of the sages of the group. He found himself among the “five or six players” that coaches consulted to get the pulse of the locker room.
In Detroit, he will no longer be a veteran among many other veterans. He will literally be the dean. He expects to play a “leadership role,” which already fills him with “pride.”
Arriving in the NHL at 19, Perron was, “for a few seasons, the youngest guy in the room.” With the Blues, he remembers the influence of Keith Tkachuk upon him–“He was tough on me, but he was fair.” The Sherbrooke resident knows full well that the “approach” to adopt with young players is different today. He doesn’t intend to study the lineup before the start of training camp, however, preferring to “give everyone the chance to make a good first impression.”
He sees himself, above everything else, as a unifier. On the road, he tends to grab players from their video game consoles and force them out of the hotel, together. And this is in order to create “a team spirit” as quickly as possible.
Perron remembers the first version of the Vegas Golden Knights, in 2017-2018. “Building an identity” had been a priority. Obviously, it paid off, since the Knights, without any stars except Marc-Andre Fleury in goal, reached the Stanley Cup Final. Coincidence or not, Perron wore an alternate captain’s “A” that year.
“I’m not trying to say it will be the Detroit Golden Knights, but we have several good pieces in place to build a winning team.”
Several times, he talks about the “culture” that exists among the Red Wings. The one that Yzerman wanted to implement upon his return from Tampa Bay, and which is perceptible even in the upper echelons of the organization. Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper, Jiri Fischer and Dan Cleary all won the Stanley Cup in the red and white uniform, and are part of the team’s management today. It’s Perron himself who draws up that list.
“They’ve been parts of successful teams; they were the older guys, the leaders. I want to try to be that [kind] of player,” he concludes.
Perhaps, in the end, he’s done more homework on his new team than he’s willing to admit…
